Frisco Jihadist Omeed - piecing the story together

A day of hit-and-run horror that started with the death of a Fremont pedestrian and erupted into half an hour of chaos on the streets of San Francisco ended in the arrest of a 29-year-old driver described by some relatives as mentally disturbed but by police as apparently rational and unrepentant.
[...]
Witnesses in San Francisco described the same unreal, terrifying scene again and again: A black SUV whose driver would chase walkers and bicyclists up the street and across lawns and slammed on the accelerator to pick off his victims.

"In some cases he drove on the sidewalk, and in some cases he drove on the street," said police Sgt. Neville Gittens, a department spokesman. "The hits were intentional with no regard in terms of who was hit."
[...]
A source close to the investigation in San Francisco, however, said Popal showed no signs of mental illness or remorse in his initial interviews with authorities. Popal reportedly told police that he had run down pedestrians "because he just wanted to."

Letter from Iranian 'Prez' Ahmadawhackjob

....er Ahmadinejad ... you know, he who was recently tongue-bathed by Mike Wallace. Here are some choice bits from Ahmadinejad's letter to German Chancelor Merkel ... it's worth a full read to get the full flavor of his invitation to Merkel to stop feeling anti-semitism is, like, you know, bad or something.

if it had not been for the persistence of a strong will by certain global powers and special groups to constantly portray Germany as defeated and indebted country of World War II in order to continue their extortions
[...]
Sixty years have passed since the end of the war. But, regrettably the entire world and some nations in particular are still facing its consequences. Even now the conduct of some bullying powers and power-seeking and aggressive groups is the conduct of victors with the vanquished.

The extortion and blackmail continue, and people are not allowed to think about or even question the source of this extortion, otherwise they face imprisonment. When will this situation end? Sixty years, one hundred years or one thousand years, when? I am sorry to remind you that today the perpetual claimants against the great people of Germany are the bullying powers and the Zionists that founded the Al-Qods Occupying Regime with the force of bayonets in the Middle East.
[...]
The collective conscience of the world is indignant over the daily atrocities by the Zionist occupiers, destruction of homes and farms, killing of children, assassinations and bombardments.
[...]
We need to ask ourselves that for what purposes the millions of dollars that the Zionists receive from the treasury of some Western countries are spent for.
[...]
Regrettably, the influence of the Zionists in the economy, media and some centers of political power has endangered interests of the European nations and has robbed them of many opportunities.

Goshdarn, if he doesn't just sound like he's been reading A.N.S.W.E.R., Moveon, CAIR or any number of Left bloggers?

August 29, 2006

Attack in San Francisco - 1 dead, 14 hurt

One man has died and at least 14 people were injured when a Fremont man purposefully drove his sport-utility vehicle onto sidewalks and crosswalks in San Francisco and Fremont today, according to San Francisco police.

The victims appear to include a Fremont man, a 78-year-old man who was using a cane to cross the street when he was struck, and a woman in her 70s. Earlier reports that a child was injured was incorrect.

``It's one of the craziest things I've seen in my years on the force,'' said San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens. ``This individual was driving around the city mowing people down.''

The driver was in police custody. His name was not immediately released, but Department of Motor Vehicles records show the license plate on the SUV is registered to Omeed A. [Aziz] Popal of Fremont.

WHAT IS NOT BEING COVERED

Heard on the Hugh Hewitt show, callers from the area are saying the area the driver targeted is heavily Jewish. Infact, one victims was run over right in front of the Jewish Community Center.

Will this be as ignored as the slaughter at the Jewish Federation in Seattle?

'Fight the Israel Lobby'

One of the most frustrating -- and alarming -- debates I engage in, from time to time, with left-of-center people is about Israel, Jews and Zionism. Naivety and disingenuousness mix together in varying proportions in the responses to my assertion that much of the demonstrations (by organizations like A.N.S.W.E.R.) ostensibly about "anti-war", "anti-occupation" or "anti-Zionism" are steeped in old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Just as the origin of the word "anti-Semitism" was coined as a pseudo-scientific phrase in an attempt to make visceral Jew-hate more acceptable, so do contemporary anti-Zionist anti-Semites cloak themselves with rationalizations and academic "studies." So it shouldn't be surprising to find John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, two "academics" of Harvard who produced a controversial paper about the "undue influence of the Israel Lobby", being feted at an event sponsored by front-group, CAIR. The fig-leaf drops

Yesterday, at the invitation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), they [Mearsheimer and Walt] held a forum at the National Press Club to expand on their allegations about the Israel lobby. Blurring the line between academics and activism, they accepted a button proclaiming "Fight the Israel Lobby" and won cheers from the Muslim group for their denunciation of Israel and its friends in the United States.

Whatever motivated the performance, the result wasn't exactly scholarly.

Walt singled out two Jews who worked at the Pentagon for their pro-Israel views. "People like Paul Wolfowitz or Doug Feith . . . advocate policies they think are good for Israel and the United States alike," he said. "We don't think there's anything wrong with that, but we also don't think there's anything wrong for others to point out that these individuals do have attachments that shape how they think about the Middle East."

"Attachments" sounds much better than "dual loyalties." But why single out Wolfowitz and Feith and not their non-Jewish boss, Donald Rumsfeld? [...]

Walt seemed defensive about the charges of anti-Semitism. He cautioned that the Israel lobby "is not a cabal," that it is "not synonymous with American Jews" and that "there is nothing improper or illegitimate about its activities."

But Mearsheimer made no such distinctions as he used "Jewish activists," "major Jewish organizations" and the "Israel lobby" interchangeably. Clenching the lectern so tightly his knuckles whitened, Mearsheimer accused Israel of using the kidnapping of its soldiers by Hezbollah as a convenient excuse to attack Lebanon.

"Israel had been planning to strike at Hezbollah for months," he asserted.

I'll point out this assertion, without one scrap of evidence, mirrors a similar claim by Nasrallah in an attempt to duck who was responsible for igniting the last round of war in the Middle East.

The far-Left, dominated by an anti-Western pathos, has become the center where contemporary anti-Semitism resides -- and none are more in denial than "progressive" Jews who tie themselves into rhetorical knots to avoid facing that anti-Semitism face on. Noam Chomsky embraces the Hezzi-nazis. Tony Judt advocates the destruction of the state of Israel. Leftist Michael Lerner, an outspoken critic of certain Israeli policies is, none-the-less, a Zionist, and critical of "anti-war" protests being used to advance an anti-Semitic agenda. For that he was blackballed by A.N.S.W.E.R.

On the personal level, my latest debate on this subject was frustrating because I kept encountering such disingenuousness as someone claiming not to know the chant that calls for the annihilation of Israel (from [Jordan] river to [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free [judenrein]) to people actually denying that the radical ideology of Islamism even exists. Yet, these "progressives" are supporting an ideology that finds them as abhorant and worthy of oppression as pro-Western right-of-center people.

Consciously or not, the Jew who sides with those dedicated to murdering Jews feels that he will be spared. He becomes the "good Jew" in the anti-Semites' eyes. How else to explain the visit of a Jew named Noam Chomsky to Lebanon to support Hezbollah or the fact that Chomsky wrote the foreword to a French book denying the Holocaust? How else to explain Norman Finkelstein telling cheering German audiences that the Jewish state is morally the same as the Nazis? How else to explain rabbis visiting Tehran to extol the Holocaust-denying regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran that seeks to exterminate Israel?

The other psychological explanation is related. The Jew -- specifically the radical Jew -- who sympathizes with Jew-haters wishes to announce to the world that he is not really like other Jews. While the other Jews are moored in provincial Jewish ethnic or religious identity, he is a world citizen who no more identifies with the Jews' fate than with the fate of Iroquois Indians.

My frustration is mixed with utter pity. It's not easy to see people demonstrate in an effort to commit suicide by jihadist.

August 28, 2006

Twin blogging!!!

August 27, 2006

Bush responsible for racist LA busdriver

From time to time I dip a toe into the Left blogsphere, as reality perceived by the Reality-based Community™ can be ... well ... educational in the same way watching Jackass is educational.

Promoted from mere diaries to frontpage recognition as best of the last 24 hours of kossack blogdom is this piece of educational codswallop.

Today's news item on the school bus driver in Louisiana who moved the black students to the back of the bus to accomodate white students brought back of living in the segregated south under the rule of Jim Crow. Apparently Bush's racially color blind message hasn't reached the ears of the citizens of the great sovereign state of Louisiana,yet. Or has it?

I think the message of racial color blindess has reached Louisiana bus drivers. Maybe the internal assumptions and contradictions of racial color blindness have made it socially acceptable for the bus drivers in Lousiana to set up their own informal Jim Crow standards.

Bush's racial policy of "color blindness" is a public policy of benign neglect of racial problems.

See, it is Bush's policy that has encouraged racist drivers (note the plural extrapolated by this rocket scientist by this one case) to blithely re-establish "Jim Crow". Not that it matters that the driver is suspended and under investigation. That this driver acted at all is from tacit Bushie racist approval. And does koskiddie explain or link to any published policy of "colorblindness?"

Color blindness is a whitewash of racial issues because it disenfranchises black Americans by ignoring them as politically insignificant.

If someone can make actual sense of that sentence, let me know. Allegedly, the civil rights movement was essentially about black Americans reaching a goal where they were considered no different than any other American; where they were judged by their character, not by their melanin level. Yet this Koskiddie turns that goal on its head, asserting that melanin level, ie color awareness, is of paramount importance.

White Americans, abetted by neo-conservative writers of all hues, generally believe that racial discrimination is a thing of the past

WHICH paler Americans have expressed that? What sources or quotes are offered to substantiate that charge? I have never heard any reasonable, rational right-of-center person ever say racial discrimination is "a thing of the past." Never. Bigotry and prejudice are sad facts of life. However, de jure, or institutionalized, racism against minorities is a thing of the past.

and that any racial inequalities that undeniably persist--in wages, family income, and access to housing or health care.

Again, no sourcing to the bald assertion of "undeniably". But we are getting close to the payoff line.

can be attributed to African Americans' cultural and individual failures. Racial color-blindness assumes that black poverty is caused by the personal character flaws in black Americans.

Let's consider a couple of things the Koskiddie leaves out of his Reality-based™ charge.

1 - Most black Americans are not "poor"
2 - Most "poor" are not black Americans*

Keep those two facts in mind while koskiddie goes on to attempt to support his thesis that LA bus drivers are given permission to discriminate because of Bush "color blind" policy

Blaming black Americans for racial discrimination is a very racially divisive policy because color blindness makes the a priori assumption that many blacks live in poverty because they are lazy and stupid.

Guess the koskiddie thought a bit of Latin might punch up his creds. Let's hear those "ooooos" and "aaaahhhhhs". At the risk of being a broken record, just where is the sourcing of the promotion of "color blind" or "race neutral" policies presumptive that blacks are "shiftless"?

In fact weren't Africans brought to American as slaves to work for lazy and stupid white folks? Even back 1700s, I guess that cottonpicking was one of those jobs that (white) Americans would never work at! So a "guest slave" program helped out all those plantation owners in the South. The more things change, the more things remain the same.

By golly, ain't this koskiddie cute? Historically ignorant, yes, but notice how he so cutely tries to draw parallels with illegal immigration. I forget now, what IS the Left cult position on illegal aliens these days?

American politics cannot be fair to all citizens by being color blind because American society is not color blind. Fairness, not color blindness, is a fundamental principle of justice.

::::ahem::::

People of goodwill can actually disagree on what the best policies are for ameloriating persistent poverty of individuals. I use "persistent poverty" point out the distinct differences those people whose circumstance or behavior contributes to continuing to remain in poverty for extended periods of time from those that transition into and out-of poverty, also due to circumstance and behavior.

Transitional poverty would include college students, newly weds, someone who experiences a sudden family tragedy like death ... any one who will find themselves out of poverty within 5 to 10 years.

This is something that is not race-based. Predictors of those that may find themselves in persistant poverty circumstances like high-school dropouts, engaging in crime, and young, single mothers.

The message to avoid poverty is stay in school, stay out of trouble and that message holds the same no matter one's melanin level.

Bill Cosby was attacked two years ago for commenting on the elephant in the room.

"It is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us, and it keeps a person frozen in their seat. It keeps you frozen in your hole that you are sitting in to point up and say, 'That's the reason why I am here.' We need to stop this ... I couldn't care less about what white people think about me at this time ... Let them talk! What are they saying that is different from what their grandfather said? What are they doing or trying to do to us that their grandfathers didn't try to do to us? But what is different is what we are doing to ourselves." *

Race quotas, set asides, race-norming ... all color-conscious policies infantalize the people they allegedly help. Justice is depicted as "blind" to any other factors than what is at hand for the individuals involved.

Why should the melanin-enriched son of a black NBA player from Bel Air get "extra points" towards college admissions than the daughter of a melanin-challenged coal-miner from Appalachia? Why should a Japanese-American student be docked points because Asians are "over-represented" on college campuses?

Individual bigotry still exists, but one doesn't fight it by engaging in other forms of racism.

Just as functional anti-semitism centers itself today in the contemporary Left, so does functional racism center itself in a Left that holds black Americans as individually incapable of self-responsibility. They are the white [Left] person's burden.

FoxNews reporters are released after being forced to convert to Islam (and you know what moslems do to apostates) - UPDATED

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, left Gaza and have since crossed into Israel after their release. The men left Gaza through the Erez border crossing. [...]

He said he was so emotional because he was out and alive.

"There were times when I thought 'I'm dead,' and I'm not," Centanni said. "I'm fine. I'm so very happy."

He recounted how he and Wiig were pulled out of their car on August 14 and taken at gunpoint into another car. The kidnappers blindfolded them and handcuffed their hands behind their backs with plastic ties. They were then transferred to another car and driven to a building that they later learned was a garage.

"We were pushed down onto the dirt-covered concrete floor and we were forced to lie face down with our handcuffs on," Centanni said.

"Olaf was in the same room with me. Our shoulders were wrenched back, very painful."

Both of the men were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, Centanni said.

"We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni told FOX News.

What is that line I keep hearing from "moderate moslem" spokesholes interviewed in the media?

Oh yeah, there is no compulsion in Islam.

So what, you may ask, is the big deal now that they are free? Well, it effectively removes Centanni and Wiig from working in any moslem controlled territory ever again because if they "reject" their "new religion" they are now apostates.

And in Islam, apostates are under sentence of death at the hands of any other moslem. Hot Air has the video of their "conversion", something that can be used by Islamists (and will) to make sure that Centanni and Wiig spend the rest of their lives with big targets on their back ... or their necks.

Of course, don't overestimate the sympathy of far left fringies. Here's a few choice comments from Dementedcrat Underground

tocqueville
you can never "de-convert" once you are Muslim ... or else you get a death fatwa for being an apostate ... that's only fair and balanced I love it
---------CJCRANE
"There is no compulsion in religion" is in the Koran. This whole convert at gunpoint thing is probably a set up of some kind. It serves no useful purpose in Palestinian politics.

This is a perfect story for Fox News - it fits all their preconceived notions of Islam to a T. Strange that Palestinian kidnappers have never held journalists for this long before, nor made strange demands affecting America nor converted their captives to Islam before.

Isn't that special?

UPDATE The only mention of this on dailykos is this diary which mocks the victims and plays the "this is all a hoax by Fox" meme.

August 26, 2006

Saturday morning must reads

Cassandra chops, dices and purees yet another instance of BDS and how a well-known "journalist" just doesn't get it.

Fausta ruminates on "Why men's lives are more difficult nowadays". Agree or disagree with her, she offers some insightful observations on contemporary culture.

Confederate Yankee points out why a particular E&P Editor was so quick to defend the faked photos coming from Lebanon ... by golly, Greggy has faked it himself! (And Charles discovers that someone has accessed Greggy's 2003 article and edited recently in an attempt to soften his damning admission. Good times!)

And while factions of the American Left still blame America for Islamist terrorist attacks (and even hoping for another 9/11 on American soil so their guys can get elected ... niiiicce), NRO features an article demonstrating Soviet nurturing and fertilizing of Jew-hatred in dar ul Islam in the 1970's which has reaped bumper crops today (maybe a bit more then they wanted, considering the Beslan massacre). hattips to Kim at Wizbang and Smash.

August 25, 2006

'How can I be anti Semitic? I’m circumcised'

August 24, 2006

FDA issues reasonable Plan B guidelines

WASHINGTON - Women may buy the morning-after pill without a prescription — but only with proof they're 18 or older, federal health officials ruled Thursday, capping a contentious 3-year effort to ease access to the emergency contraceptive.

Girls 17 and younger still will need a doctor's note to buy the pills, called Plan B, the Food and Drug Administration told manufacturer Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.

This should come as no surprise, as President Bush supported this policy

Q: Thank you very much. Mr. President, some pro-life groups are worried that your choice of FDA Commissioner will approve over the counter sales of Plan B, a pill that, they say, essentially can cause early-term abortions. Do you stand by this choice, and how do you feel about Plan B in general?

THE PRESIDENT: I believe that Plan B ought to be -- ought to require a prescription for minors, is what I believe. And I support Andy's decision.

Bush only recently announced his support for contraception, saying it was acceptable for "responsible adults" to use birth control, but not anyone else. (Because, clearly, irresponsible people make the best parents.)

Heavens! The idea of restricting the sale of medications to ADULTS! My gawd, before you know it, selling alcohol, tobacco, and p0rn to minors will be outlawed! There might even be age restrictions on getting a tattoo or piercing!

I'm so happy that the idea of society respecting the rights of parents to actually engage in "responsible parenting" has, for some, gone the way of "I like Ike" buttons.

Cuz we just gotta let kids explore anything and everything without hurting their little psyche's with, ya know, rules and expectations, and if a 14 year old girl wants to continue to hide her sexual relationship with her 25 year old volleyball coach from her parents, who are we to not help her?

Kudos to the FDA.

I have to admit, it's amusing to see the first commenter at the last link immediately launch into "Zionist Bush supporters" coupled with "Bush has no moral integrity" because of this policy. Must make Left cultists head spin to have Bush not act according to their own bigoted stereotype.

August 23, 2006

Arab-Palestinian terrorist kipnappers make their demands

Word on the condition of the Fox News team of Steve Centanni, 60, of the San Francisco area, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, kidnapped in Gaza by Presbyterians moslem terrorists came today

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A previously unknown Palestinian group released video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men, a Palestinian news agency reported.

Such a nonsensical demand is troubling in that it signals that these terrorists are not serious about releasing Centanni and Wiig anytime soon, if at all.

Statistics are not kept on the religion of prisoners at state and local levels because stays are relatively short for the majority of them. At the Federal level, as of 2003, approximately 173,000 prisoners were identified with some form of Islam*. Does any rational person believe that any of this population has been imprisoned as "political" or "religious" prisoners?

Note, too, that the video was released by Al-Jazeera, who always seems to be really really lucky in getting the scoop where Islamist terrorists are concerned.

Instead of listening to self-described "Moderate Muslims" on shows like Laura Ingraham's or Michael Medved's spending their time downplaying or making excuses about moslem radical thugs not really being about the "true" Islam, I want to see them clean their own house.

Somewhere between Friday and Monday

August 18, 2006

ACLU lawsuit admits terrorist ties

Patterico wades into the opinion yesterday from one federal judge declaring the terrorist surveillance program (which is erroneously referred to in the MSM as 'wiretapping') unconstitutional and finds a stunning admission.

Plaintiffs here contend that the TSP [”Terrorist Surveillance Program”] has interfered with their ability to carry out their professional responsibilities in a variety of ways, including that the TSP has had a significant impact on their ability to talk with sources, locate witnesses, conduct scholarship, engage in advocacy and communicate with persons who are outside of the United States, including in the Middle East and Asia. Plaintiffs have submitted several declarations to that effect. For example, scholars and journalists such as plaintiffs Tara McKelvey, Larry Diamond, and Barnett Rubin indicate that they must conduct extensive research in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and must communicate with individuals abroad whom the United States government believes to be terrorist suspects or to be associated with terrorist organizations. In addition, attorneys Nancy Hollander, William Swor, Joshua Dratel, Mohammed Abdrabboh, and Nabih Ayad indicate that they must also communicate with individuals abroad whom the United States government believes to be terrorist suspects or to be associated with terrorist organizations, and must discuss confidential information over the phone and email with their international clients. All of the Plaintiffs contend that the TSP has caused clients, witnesses and sources to discontinue their communications with plaintiffs out of fear that their communications will be intercepted.

Patterico points out that this also belies the bleating from the Islamist apologists on the Left who, upon the NYTimes unconscionable leaking of this program, declared the terrorists already knew they were being monitored and this program was hurting Aunt Mabel trying to exchange recipes with Grandma Matilda.

Obviously, not.

So where is the Constitutional right of American citizens to confidentially communicate with the sworn enemies of the United States? Enemies who have declared war on us?

Anyone honestly think FDR would have sat still for that rationale in WWII?

SPIEGEL: You also mentioned the hatred for the United States throughout the Arab world which has ensued as a result of the invasion of Iraq. Given this circumstance, does it come as any surprise that Washington's call for democracy in the Middle East has been discredited?

Carter: No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon.

SPIEGEL: But wasn't Israel the first to get attacked?

Carter: I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that's justified, no.

Leave aside Jimmy's clear lie about "bombing the entire nation of Lebanon" or his claim this was just two kidnapped soldiers while ignoring the soldiers within Israel at the time of the raid that were murdered by the Hezzi-nazis, but Jimmy Quisling claims there is some kind moral equivalency between the Israeli soldiers and prisoners in jail for murder, mayhem and terrorism and he finds the Jews wanting.

Jimmy goes on to lie about tax reform, to libel American Christians and even blatantly and shamelessly lies about his own role in the peace deal between Egypt and Israel!

Carter: When I became president we had had four terrible wars between the Arabs and Israelis (behind us). And I under great difficulty, particularly because Menachim Begin was elected, decided to try negotiation and it worked and we have a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt for 27 years that has never been violated.

What a demented (I guess I can say that because Jimmy is heterosexual or asexual) lying asshole. Anwar Sadat (who Jimmy didn't even mention) started that peace process in 1977 with first a speech to his parliment, then with the unprecented speech infront of the Israeli Knesset.

Carter: I think I represent the vast majority of Democrats in this country. I think there is a substantial portion of American people that completely agree with me

So Lefties. Is that true? Are you in agreement with a man that hates "the rich", Israel, Jews and Christians and revises history to benefit his own delusions of his historical role?

August 16, 2006

One moslem 'gets it' while some American's dither

LAST week, the luminaries of the British Muslim mainstream — lobbyists, lords and members of Parliament — published an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, telling him that the “debacle” of both Iraq and Lebanon provides “ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.” In increasingly antiwar America, a similar argument is gaining traction: The United States brutalizes Muslims, which in turn foments Islamist terror.

August 15, 2006

Breeder wars

Probably no other subject, other than abortion, can devolve quicker into snark matches than parenting. While Lauren (formerly a regular, and about the only reasonable voice, on Feministe) pens an excellent, out-of-the-park post on parenting and attitudes toward children, the comment section highlights how some people refuse to debate in good faith, especially if it might mean letting go of their emotional security blanket of blaming the usual suspects in the Left pantheon of villains, aka America, Capitalism, the Patriarchy, White people, the Middle Class and Xtians.

(an aside...it ain't Xtians tenting women, beheading civilians or hanging teenaged girls for pre-marital sex, but you'd never know it from the running around in circles and shrieking from the Christophobes)

Even if we dismiss the outright silliness that mere giving birth makes women superior to men (or any childless female), or that "authentic" feminists never have children, we still are dealing - by and large - a group that suffers a St. Vitus attack in its left leg anytime a phrase like "individual responsibility" wanders across a page. And heaven forefend any criticism of public school systems!

Let's start with some basics.

Children are not "little adults". They gain information, but they have no wisdom. They are not the peers of adults.

Children are the primary responsibility of their parents. Amazingly, this simple fact annoys some people no end. If parents are not responsible WHO IS? The neighbor? The family three blocks over? The city? The state?

All choice involves trade offs. Sometimes doing "A" means you may not get to do "B" anymore. Sometimes you'll find "A" a bit harder than you expected, or not as fulfilling. Stop whining about "A"!

No one owes you anything. By the time you reach majority, you have to do more than just stand around sucking oxygen. Your life does not constitute a blank check on the lives of others. I certainly shouldn't have to tell anyone this. Responsible parents attempt to educate their offspring to this fact of life (though they may lose to the entitlement mindset brainwashing that passes for much contemporary Western intellectsia and academia).

Children used to be viewed as our stake in the future, a legacy of our values and culture. Too many times they are either considered either social accoutrements or a plague. For every adult that sucks in their breath when a child accompanies their parent(s) into a restaurant, there is a parent who refuse to control their child's behavior in public places.

With the decline in basic social politeness came the sense that the greatest value in the public square was not to be bothered. It has become a fucking right that screams its sensitivity and intolerance. Shut that kid up! Take down that cross! You had better not light up that cigarette near me! Don't look at my kid that way!

If I have a bone to pick with my generation (baby boomers) is where too many have decided to be their kid’s friend rather than their parent. Children may have differing levels of knowledge, but they have no wisdom; and I’m as embarrassed by children outrageously misbehaving in public unrestrained by their adult “friends” as I am by adult “friends” who believe their kid’s opinions on politics or world affairs are earthshakingly noteworthy.

It should be noted that parenting is not easy. But a worthy parent is one who can listen to their child scream “I HATE YOU! I WISH I NEVER WAS BORN!” without collapsing into a whimpering puddle of goo.

We do our children no favors by refusing to raise them, with all that one word packs into it.

Is it women that do the majority of the child raising of small kids? Yes. Does it constitute some Patriarchal conspiracy to Oppress and Exploit Womyn?

No. It doesn't. Should fathers do more? For those who don't pull their fair share, OF COURSE! Children deserve both parents. But until artificial wombs are perfected, it remains a biological fact that only women spend nine months pregnant, give birth and are capable of breast feeding. Circumstance or choice will find many mothers with/without supportive partners and/or family. Most mothers will choose to breastfeed or otherwise be the primary caregiver to infants. What may look from the outside as an exploitation of a woman because she made the choice to stay home for the first few years of her child’s life, may not necessarily be exploitation. We should not discount the huge desire of moms to remain home with their infants and how lucky they feel when the household finances allow it. Same for that small percentage of families where dad stays home.

Parents who choose to do the heavy lifting of child raising themselves are not “failed”, “forced” or “exploited”, anymore than a homeowner who does the heavy lifting of renovating their home on their own is “exploited” as “free labor”.

It’s just a different choice made by those that feel it is in the best interest of the family.

Children are little human beings of great future potential. Potential for good or evil. How they realize that potential depend largely from their interactions with adults -- parents and all others.

It is something we should always keep in mind when we encounter any child in any setting.

August 14, 2006

Iran's 'cartoon' exhibit and a prediction

An exhibition of more than 200 cartoons about the Holocaust opened Monday as Iran's response to last year's Muslim outrage over a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.

The display, showing 204 entries from Iran and abroad, was strongly influenced by the views of Iran's hard-line president, Mahoud Ahmadinejad, who drew widespread condemnation last year for calling the Holocaust a "myth" and saying Israel should be destroyed.

One cartoon by Indonesian Tony Thomdean shows the Statue of Liberty holding a book on the Holocaust in its left hand and giving a Nazi-style salute with the other.

Prediction There will be no worldwide riots by enraged Jews, burning Iranian and Indonesian flags, beating moslems and burning down moslem mosques and businesses.

Breaking News: plane at LAX evacuated

LOS ANGELES - Police evacuated an Alaska Airlines flight Monday after a report that a "suspicious item" was found on board, a Los Angeles International Airport spokeswoman said.

Airport police were notified at 8:20 a.m. that there was a suspicious item on board a plane that was in the air after leaving Guadalajara, Mexico, said airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles.

The plane landed without incident just before 9 a.m., Castles said, and all 125 passengers were transported to the terminal in buses after the plane stopped in a remote area of the airport. A Los Angeles Police bomb squad and the FBI will search the plane, she said.

Islamists here and abroad - UPDATED

During WWII it was the German American Bund that was both a Nazi cover group and a propaganda arm for American Nazi supporters and apologists. During this war with the murderous, totalitarian ideology of Islamism we have even American kids being inculcated with this abject immorality.

These kids look to be about nine or ten, wearing the haute terroriste keffiyeh ('popularized' by the now roasting in hell Arafat) and chanting such lovelies as "hey hey ho ho we support the PLO."

Jaysus on a Pony, will we ever hear an end to these lame 60's hippie-inspired chants?

While the German Islamist American Bund marched in Washington DC, just what were some of the people they support doing? Well, how about murder and mayhem in the street? (warning, graphic imagery).

I hope that International A.N.S.W.E.R., the Leftist organization behind Saturday's worldwide demonstrations of anti-Semitism, are near the top of the FBI's terrorist watch list (long with CAIR).

If you are an American moslem, this is your responsibility. Start rooting out the terrorist sympathizers in your midst. Make note of them. Turn them in. If you don't, you are no morally different than the American Nazi supporters of 1939.

If you are an American that still clings to the belief that this is all Israel's fault, or Bush's fault, or the fault of Jews and Christians -- fuck you. You are the new American brownshirts.

August 12, 2006

Saving Mt. Soledad from anti-religious bigotry

ANN ARBOR, MI – President Bush is scheduled to sign legislation on Monday, August 14, that would transfer ownership of the Mt. Soledad property to the federal government. The President has invited Charles LiMandri of the Thomas More Law Center to be present at the bill signing ceremony. LiMandri, the Law Center’s West Coast Director, has spearheaded the legal fight to protect the Mt. Soledad Cross and Memorial.

The legislation, which provides for the immediate transfer of ownership of the veterans memorial to the federal government, was first introduced in the House of Representatives by Duncan Hunter (R-CA). The legislation was overwhelmingly passed by the House 349-74 on July 19, 2006, and unanimously approved by the Senate on August 1.

IDF reaches Litani River

JERUSALEM - Israeli army units reached the Litani River on Saturday, less than 24 hours after the government ordered an operation to march toward the river in a final push against entrenched Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel Radio reported.

The units were part of a massive force that flooded into Lebanon, trying to seize as much territory as possible before a U.N. cease-fire comes into effect. The objective was to control southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, about 18 miles from the Israeli border, before handing over the area to the Lebanese army and U.N. troops.

Nothing less then the complete destruction of the Hezzi-nazis is acceptable -- even the UN "ceasefire" calls for their disarming and an arms embargo, something that Nasrallah is indicating he won't agree to:

Hizbullah would not cease its actions against "the Zionist enemy." We will continue to "fulfill our national and jihadic obligations."

Remember, Jihad in German is Mein Kampf.

Iran and Syria have cooperated to fund and supply the Hezzi-nazis. So let's not hear anymore of the canards coming from the anti-Israel Left about how "religious" Islamists would NEVER be in league with "secular" Islamists (recall that Saddam's support of Islamist, like Arab-Palestinian suicide bombers has never penetrated the Left's "thinking" process).

August 11, 2006

Moral confusion in the MSM - Brian Williams clueless

File this under a "huh?" moment. From Hardball exchange between Chris Matthews and Brian Williams

MATTHEWS: You know, in our first edition of HARDBALL tonight, we had a senator on, former Senator John Edwards on, who said that once these people in the east and the Islamic world get to know us personally, understand our good character, as he said, they wouldn‘t hate us so much, they wouldn‘t want to commit suicide to hurt us. But here we have maybe 25, 24 people who have lived in London and England and the free world for all these years, that become citizens, subjects of the crown, and, yet, after having gotten to know us, they want to kill themselves to hurt us. Isn‘t that an even deeper conundrum here than the chemicals being used in these attacks?

WILLIAMS: And that, Chris, that last aspect, the willingness to take one‘s own life, I always tell people, you know, there are guys on our team like that, too. They‘re called Army Rangers and Navy Seals and the special forces folks and the first responders on 9/11 who went into those buildings knowing, by the way, they weren‘t going to come out. So we have players like that on our team. But to the center of your question, it goes to etiology. Can you reverse the clock here. We now know this is the conflict of our generation. Who would have thought it would take this shape? Who would have thought it would be against an enemy we can‘t always see, and who would have thought the new target would be a stainless steel tube flying, as you put it, at 39,000 feet, full of innocent people.

I realize that Williams was not intending to insult American forces by favorably comparing them with Islamist terrorists. However, this is a huge red flag on how flabby we, as a culture, have gotten from the refusal or tentativeness to actually, publicly discuss morality.

The morality of a terrorist's actions is not predicated on his willingness to die, it is the context in which he DOES die. And killing civilians in order to terrorize, oppress, and pursue a goal of anti-human totalitarianism makes his behavior evil.

Are the Columbine shooters the moral equivalents of Army Rangers because they were willing to die for what they believed in? Is any person one sees on the nightly news committing "suicide by cop" the moral equivalent of the cops who are trying to stop him/her from taking other people with him/her?

Are rape and love making the same just because they both involve sexual intercourse?

CAIR, are you paying attention?

It all began with a tip: In the aftermath of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on London's transit system, British authorities received a call from a worried member of the Muslim community, reporting general suspicions about an acquaintance.

From that vague but vital piece of information, according to a senior European intelligence official, British authorities opened the investigation into what they said turned out to be a well-coordinated and long-planned plot to bomb multiple transatlantic flights heading toward the United States -- an assault designed to rival the scope and lethality of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings.

Back here in the US, CAIR and other moslem "leaders" are much more upset about what President Bushsaid:

President Bush was widely criticized by Muslim leaders Thursday for saying that the breakup of an alleged plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic Ocean was a triumph in the "war against Islamic fascists."

Muslims, already resentful of the scrutiny they have been under since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said the politically charged phrase unfairly connected one of the world's great religions with Nazism and totalitarianism — and fueled hostility against Islam and Muslims in America.

Word to "resentful" moslems in the United States.

Fuck off. Take your "resentment", sit on it and spin. You are damned lucky that President Bush only used "fascist" to describe that small minority of co-religionists that you seem unable to unequivocally condemn and march against. Pathetically and predictably, revelation of this sophisticated and deadly terrorist plan brings from you, not words of praise and encouragement to other moderate moslems to be vigilante in exposing the radicals but bleats and shrieks about a backlash.

Indeed, if the President wanted to be historically correct, he wouldn't have used "fascist" ... as Italian and Spanish fascists were not about wiping Jews off the face of the earth. That added-bonus feature was offered up by German fascists aka Nazis. Radical moslems are contemporary Nazis.

Funny, isn't it, that Jihad in German is Mein Kampf?

Quick advice to American moslem "leaders", do not take your talking points from CAIR that finds moslem terrorism "alleged", and is more concerned with "backlashes" and terrorists being labeled "fascist" than with actually urging moslems to do anything to root out and defeat Islamist Nazis. Take your clues from the courageous UK Muslim who exposed the plot to blow up civilian airlines.

Remain wobbly on the issue and don't be surprised as Americans will expect that each and every one of you should be under local and federal scrutiny.

More on why the Left and Democrats cannot be trusted ...

Britain's MI-5 intelligence service and Scotland Yard had been tracking the plot for several months, but only in the past two weeks had the plotters' planning begun to crystallize, senior U.S. officials tell TIME. In the two or three days before the arrests, the cell was going operational, and authorities were pressed into action. MI5 and Scotland Yard agents tracked the plotters from the ground, while a knowledgeable American official says U.S. intelligence provided London authorities with intercepts of the group's communications.

"we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently." Al Gore

"It is a violation of law. ... There's nothing in the FISA law that we passed that suggests the President has this power." John Kerry (D-MA) on the NSA Surveillance Program

"I think the Administration is violating the National Security Act of 1947 by failing to brief the full intelligence committees." Jane Harmon (D-CA)

"We know why we're here really--it is to address the embarrassing fact that the Congress has allowed the president to conduct warrantless surveillance of American citizens in violation of FISA." Rush Holt (D-NJ)

“Five years after 9-11, it is clear that our misguided policies are making America more hated in the world and making the war on terrorism harder to win.” Edward Kennedy (D-MA).

I'm not even getting into the River in Egypt stuff to be had by some of the ::ahem:: creme de la creme of Leftwinger blogsphere.

(though, please God, I'm hoping that the shrill.wtf.doesn't.she.read.before.attacking-jump-the-sharkiness by MM elicits some profuse apologies from MM. She needs to run away from teh Coulter schtick. Yesterday is not soon enough).

August 10, 2006

Islamist terrorist plot foiled in UK - Lamont's netroots unimpressed

A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.
It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft.

Police are searching premises after 21 people were arrested. Home Secretary John Reid said they believed the "main players" were accounted for.

WASHINGTON - The terror scheme disrupted in London is "suggestive of an al-Qaida plot," the Bush administration said Thursday as it issued its highest terrorism alert ever for commercial flights from Britain to the United States and raised the threat level for all domestic and international flights.
[...]
The administration raised the threat level for flights from Britain to "red," designating a severe risk of terrorist attacks. All other flights, including all domestic flights in the United States, were put under an "orange," alert — one step below the highest level.

The U.S. government banned all liquids and gels from flights, including toothpaste, makeup, suntan lotion. Baby formula and medicines were exempted.
[...]
British authorities said the plan envisioned bringing down a number of aircraft with midflight explosions. Chertoff said the terrorists planned to bring various bomb components in a benign state aboard the planes and combine them once the planes were aloft to create and detonate explosive devices.

While this story is breaking, the Reality Based Community is again showing it's adult nature in handling this info of continued Islamist plots by jeering

JEERS to red meat for Fox News. The U.S. and Britain are now at Terror Alert Level "Mommy!!!" as an apparent terrorist plot to blow up 6-10 airliners is apparently thwarted. Officials say all liquids are now banned in the cabins of overseas flights. Great...just what a passenger riding on a potential time-bomb needs: an empty liquor cart.

August 09, 2006

A thought on the Lamont 'victory'

and the fact that Democrats are supporting him and tossing Lieberman aside, with classic Henry Reid WTFism

The perception was that (Lieberman) was too close to George Bush and this was, in many respects, a referendum on the president more than anything else. The results bode well for Democratic victories in November and our efforts to take the country in a new direction.

Trust these people with US national security?

Yeah. Right.

This country deserves two sane and adult political parties. At one time, we all held similar values and goals, even if we disagreed on the proper paths to achieve them. With the Koskiddies, Michael Moore and the Lamont lickspittle reveling in the chance to see the American military humiliated and in chains, I lament the death of the party of FDR and Kennedy.

It is indisputably wrong for a media outlet to alter photographs or other information so as to falsely represent what is being reported. That is beyond dispute. Yet for three straight days now (and still going strong), the right-wing blogosphere has been wallowing in a self-celebratory swarm because two photographs taken in Lebanon and published by Reuters were found to have been altered using Photoshop by the freelance photographer who submitted them.

Greenwald goes on to poo-poo this as "well it happens all the time, and it isn't really as bad as when FauxNews allowed false quotes attributed to John Kerry... Nothing to see here but just the usual wingnutteria..move along."

And of course, Greenwald describes Charles Johnson (watch video here) as one of the

anti-Reuters lynch mob leaders, Little Green Footballs

but he just can't bring himself to say Charles' name.

Rick Moran has steered through a lot more of the portside and directs these comments at them:

What does concern me is that you have become the unwitting propaganda pawns of Hizbullah when you ignore what Reuters has admitted doing; they have pulled every single one of Mr. Hajj’s photos from their archives because he has apparently been doctoring photos for weeks.

I'd quibble with the "unwitting" adjective. Too much of the Left has willingly smashed its moral compass in its eagerness to trash (yet again) Israel. Anything that doesn't fit into the anti-Israel/anti-American agenda has to be ignored (did Markos send out another one of his marching order memos?) or dismissed.

Reuters is scrambling ... a bit faster than CBS did during Rathergate (11 days!) ... however, it should make anyone reach for the box of Morton's when viewing anything from Reuters' freelancers.

Jeff Harrell interviews another photojournalist on the issue, getting some valuable insight in how that reporting realm works.

So now I know a heck of a lot more about how freelance photojournalism works. But I don't have any more answers than when I started. I still don't have any idea whether one or more photo editors at Reuters were complicit in Hajj's attempted frauds, or whether they were just incompetent at their jobs, or whether the process itself failed somehow.

I would point out that when the editorial policies of an organization already condition them to accept that which dovetails with their bias, they are inclined to blindly trust and forgo scrutiny. Reuters has developed the use of "scare quotes" around words like "terrorist" or "terrorism" into a high art (while explaining their unwillingness to use these words directly as an avoidance of "emotive" terms). Associated Press also was an easy victim of its leftwing bias, falling for a hoax photo of a "captured US soldier" that turned out to be a GI Joe doll.

This has always been the gaping pitfall of advocacy journalism. When one is more interested in Truth and preaching it to the great unwashed who haven't had the spiritual enlightment that comes with that journalism degree, then facts that don't fit the Greater Narative are an enemy to be clone-tooled out of existence.

Most of us are old hands at discerning the messages in marketing campaigns. Shiney pick-up trucks pictured with half-naked women draped over the hoods? Handsome couples hiking through lush forests while cigarettes dangle from their fingers? How about a burning Koran? Time well past for us to bring our collective discriminating eye to include "news" agency output as much as we dissect the photo/press release output of Big Tobacco, Big Sugar or Big Booze.

If Reuters had half a brain, it would post all of Hajj's photos on a separate site and welcome continued blogger analysis that uncovered this debacle in the first place. Withdrawing the photos to cover their tracks is a dumb idea.

That assumes Reuters is interested in actually adhering to their Trust Principles even when it contradicts their bias.

Let's just say I'm not taking that bet. Anymore than I find that the Left has gotten a case of the morals when I awake tomorrow morning.

LGF's Charles Johnson exposes new fakery by the MSM

I've been gone all weekend (36 hour, peddle to the metal, car packed to all the edges, So Cal to Bay Area and back to move #4 back to college) so I'm just catching up on the latest fakery by the MSM. This time it is Photoshopped photos from Reuters exposed by Charles Johnson, who broke the Dan Rather fraudulent memo scandal

I wish I could be surprised by the MSM's pimping for Hezbollah ....

UPDATE LGF is hard to open due to huge peaks in traffic. Powerlineblog has more on Reuter's photos not only faked but staged

Couple that with stories that even the Lebanese PM had to publicly admit that one so-called "massacre" in Houla wasn't

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Monday that one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Houla, not 40 as he had earlier reported.

"The massacre in Houla, it turned out that there was one person killed," Reuters quoted Siniora as saying. "They thought that the whole building smashed on the heads of about 40 people ... thank God they have been saved."

Siniora had earlier told Arab foreign ministers in Beirut that the attack "was a horrific massacre ... in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing."

There is no moral ambiguity in this regard. Hezbollah, and by extension all Islamists, bear the responsibility for each death on either side in the lastest attempt to annihilate Israel.

And the functional quislings in the "mainstream" media need to be held responsible for their actions.

August 04, 2006

Insanity on parade - 9/11 deniers

I sat in shock listening to creepy Avery shriek "Where are the bodies? Show us bodies" while on the screen there's what's left of the victims of Islamism.

I hope I don't ever meet any of these pseudo-humans in person. I'm at a loss to understand what deep-seated hatred and paranoia drives this scum. It is beyond mere moonbattery. There must be a special ring of Hell to hold people like Avery ... those that enable evil by wanton diversion.

Things that make you go 'hmmmmmm'

Actor/Director/Film maker Mel Gibson is arrested for DUI (and is later charged). He mouthes off in the most vile, despicable manner. His words are unexcusable. When sober, he makes two, unequivocal and humble apologies then backs those apologies up with behavior substantiating his sincere desire to control his alcoholism.

Faced with a Catholic who sins, the MSM flogs the story more than the one where a moslem invades Jewish Federation offices and shoots five, murdering one.

The leftside of the blogsphere writes of Gibson-as-nazi (one LATimes writer drags out the Hitler comparison) with such utter glee and hyperbolic outrage one can be forgiven if one entertains notions about their motivation.

August 03, 2006

Checking in ...

...Got a new car (need a bit of recovery time from the whole car shopping experience...which is why I pretty much drive a car until it just dies before buying another). I realized that with all my kids grown and no more soccer/swimming/band/etc to do a mom-taxi service, I could go a bit more sporty. Got one of these. I haven't had a brandy-new car for over twenty years.

Jeff Harrell is gathering all his new "Untitled" series in one link here. Chapters four and five are up. Do not miss it.

Speaking of stories ... in a rather brilliant marketing campaign, a tongue-firmly-implanted-in-cheek Brawny Academy has been offering a "reality" series where Brawny man is helping eight men ("nominated" by their loving but frustrated wives/girlfriends) become better men. If you haven't been following the episodes, check 'em out. Hillarious.

Anyone else find it a tad revealing that basically, the story of the Seattle moslem who shot-up the Jewish Federation offices, murdering one and wounding four fell off front page news within a day while the media flogs the anti-semite rant of alcoholic Mel Gibson when he fell off the wagon? anti-semite moslem murders .. ho hum ... drunkard uses mouth and says something anti-semite ... the sky is falling!

A side note (commenter blubonnet, I'm looking at you) ... when one is attempting to argue their case that Israel is the aggressor in the wrong, it doesn't really help your credibility to attempt to substantiate your case by linking to neo-nazi websites. Just sayin'.

Last, but not least! Special heartfelt thanks to reader Hugh who hit the tip-jar yesterday. Between my car, Siobhan's return to college and an electric bill I'm going to have to sneak up on after two weeks of triple-digit temps, it couldn't have been more beautifully timed!! One hundred thousand thank yous.

August 01, 2006

It's been a day ...

... car died an ugly death, idiot short fried all the electrical including main computer component thingy and repair estimate is almost as much as the car is worth if it were running (which it isn't). So, must call salvage yards tomorrow and buy new car (something I loathe). In the meantime: